Brussels, 25/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The visit of the French president to Tripoli on Wednesday 25 July was a sign of the coming normalisation in relations with the country and “a political visit to help Libya reintegrate into the alliance of nations”, said Nicolas Sarkozy shortly after the liberation of the Bulgarian medical team (EUROPE 9475). This was an aim which elicited a more restrained response from the Belgian foreign affairs minister Karel de Gucht, who welcomed the outcome for the Bulgarians but castigated the guarantees offered to Libya during the negotiations. Mr de Gucht, who expressed the opinion on the radio station RTBF that the Libyan authorities had finally managed to extract a “ransom” from the EU, said that the practice contravened the rules of international law and insisted that the 27 member states should take this into account when looking in more depth at the future relations between the EU and Tripoli.
“Neither Europe nor France has made the slightest financial contribution to Libya in order to obtain the liberation of the Bulgarian nurses and doctor”, a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said shortly before Mr Sarkozy's trip. Other 'gestures' may follow, however, with Bulgaria having announced on Wednesday that it was planning to wipe off Libya's debt, which stands at around €40 million. The Bulgarian prime minister, Sergueï Stanichev, was careful to stress that this should not be considered a payment to Libya, saying at a press conference that “it is a humanitarian act, not a ransom”.
The president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Dimitris Dimitriadis, and the president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) René van der Linden, welcomed the liberation of the medical staff and saluted the diplomatic initiatives undertaken by their European colleagues, although they also expressed concern at the general situation in the country. Mr van der Linden said that he was “very concerned about the situation in Libya, which has led to a humanitarian tragedy and to the detention of innocent people for eight years” and called on the Libyan authorities to “urgently remedy the deplorable situation in their health system”. (ab/gb)